Debatable
WTC Flag should not be paraded

The International Olympic Committee announced the decision Wednesday to allow the tattered flag from Ground Zero, which was retrieved from the rubble of the World Trade Center collapse, to be paraded at tonight’s opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The flag will be placed next to the symbolic Olympic flame and will serve as the official U.S. flag for the entire Winter Games.

The decision to display the flag sparked much debate and controversy within the IOC, as it should have.

When the U.S. flag is carried tonight by its hard-working athletes, who will be accompanied by New York policemen and firefighters, it will create an all-American show. But that is not the purpose of this event.

The Olympics is a display for all the nations to cherish and be proud of. Not for the United States to hog all the limelight, even despite the emotions resulting from the terrorist attacks.

If the United States is allowed to carry their symbolic flag, then other countries should be allowed to carry their own flags which have a token of their own symbolism. The Israelis should be allowed to carry flags that have stains of blood from the everyday fighting with Palestinians. The Afghan people should be allowed to carry their flag which is covered from dust and debris from the heavy U.S. bombing the past four months.

Rather than flaunting the delicate flag, the United States should keep the flag in a museum for safe care or use it as a commemorative piece for the American people.
There is an appropriate time and place for everything, but the Olympics is not the right time nor the right place for the United States to evoke emotions of Sept. 11.

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TCU Daily Skiff © 2002